Memorial salutes fallen officers

CHRIS OLWELL / The News Herald

Tuesday

Dec 18, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 18, 2012 at 7:39 PM

PANAMA CITY — Dozens of current and former law enforcement officers, flanked by friends and family members, gathered Tuesday morning to commemorate a new memorial and to honor the fallen officers whose names are etched in its walls.

PANAMA CITY — Dozens of current and former law enforcement officers, flanked by friends and family members, gathered Tuesday morning to commemorate a new memorial and to honor the fallen officers whose names are etched in its walls.

The Bay County Law Enforcement Memorial, which sits between the library and the Bay County Government Center, was conceived, planned and funded by the 2012 class of Leadership Bay. The projected cost of the memorial was $50,000, but the group actually raised nearly $70,000, said project chairman Greg Wilson.

“Today’s service is a tribute to our heroes who walk the beat and answer the call,” Wilson, the Chief Assistant State Attorney who spent seven years as an officer and a deputy, told the crowd. Wilson joined state Rep. Jimmy Patronis, County Commissioner Guy Tunnell and Bay County Chamber President Al McCambry.

The names of the eight Bay County lawmen who have been killed in the line of duty are etched into the granite walls of the memorial, including a new one. Moses Dykes is believed to be the only man in state history to die violently protecting marine resources, according to a report by Maj. Kent Thompson with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In 1915, a fisherman named John Cannon shot and killed constable Dykes after Dykes attempted to arrest Cannon in Southport under a then-new and unpopular law that prohibited the taking of oysters from beds without a lease or a permit. The trial revealed Dykes had fired two shots at Cannon before he was shot, and Cannon was acquitted.

“It’s hard to go back that far and know exactly what’s going on,” said Scott Jackson, the Leadership Bay class member who researched the Dykes case. “We really didn’t want to ruffle anybody’s feathers or anything.”